The Hushed Whisper
by Bunni Trulove
Summary: Life itself is a balance. If there is good, there must be evil. But what if your good, had just a splash of evil it? Then are you fighting the right fight? -AU- Kaname Sousuke old and new friends...


I don't own Full Metal Panic, I'm just in love with the charaters...

This is my FIRST EVER fanfic. The majority of my writing before now has been research papers (yawn). Please let me know what you think and any tips you might have will whole heartedly be appreciated. If it's so boring, you can't manage to finish it, let me know and I wont bother publishing, I'm writing to entertain myself anyhow...

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"Miss Chidori, I think it would be most wise to allow me to check the safety of your apartment before you enter." Sousuke stood at attention beside Kaname's front door.

Kaname glared at him through the corner of her eyes as she slid the key into the lock.

"Sousuke, I'm exhausted, I don't have time for your paranoia. If you weren't such an idiot, we could have gotten out of school on time but you just had to insist that the food was poisoned! Food fights ensue and I am stuck cleaning up your mess!"

"Miss Chidori I was also present for the clean up."

_WHACK!_

"Ouch, I certainly hope that repeated head trauma doesn't impede my ability to guard you." Sousuke said while rubbing the side of his head.

"It's not a problem…" Kaname said with a devilish smile. "I'll see ya in the morning Sargent."

Kaname shuffled into her apartment. She didn't bother to turn on any lights as she kicked her shoes off by the door and started undressing on her way to her bedroom. She shimmied out of her skirt and kicked it by the couch. She was going straight to sleep and had enough clean-up for one day; the rest would have to wait till tomorrow. Her shirt was halfway over her head as she trudged to the doorway of her bedroom.

"You certainly know how to treat your guests Miss Chidori." A voice purred from the chair in the dark corner of her bedroom.

Kaname immediately dropped to a crouch by the doorframe and pulled her shirt back over the midsection. She squinted in the darkness but couldn't make out the face. The intruder cocked his head to the side and let out a short laugh. The light filtering in through the blinds glinted off of the long sliver locks of hair.

"Leonard Testarossa, I may be a great host, but you are not a good guest, you're not even a guest, you're a trespasser!" Kaname said, outraged rising to her feet, fists balled at her sides.

"Aw, Miss Chid-"

"TERRORIST!!" Kaname screamed over her shoulder.

Foot steps pounded up the hall, then the front door crashed open and there was Sousuke, gun in hand, rushing to Kaname. He stopped two yards from her; looking very uncomfortable and blushing a bright pink asked.

"Uhh, Chidori, where are your pants?"

Kaname was about to let loose on Sousuke when Leonard strolled out of her bedroom and slipped his hand around the small of her back and brushed his lips across her cheek to her ear and whispered loudly.

"At least _I_ know how to behave around a partially clothed Angel."

With incredible speed, Leonard was knocked on his back. He was staring up at Sousuke while bracing himself up on his elbows. Kaname peaked at Leonard from around Sousuke's shoulder. Even she was surprised at the speed and decisive action taken.

"I just came here to talk, to warn you, Miss Chidori." Leonard said as he slowly got off the ground. He was trying to play the victim, but Kaname cocked her head to the side indicating she was not fooled.

"You don't need to talk with your lips Testatossa!" Sousuke spat out.

"Hmm, well actually-" Leonard smiled.

"Oh for pete's sake!" Kaname said under her breath as she stomped over to the couch. She stepped into her skirt and pulled it up and zipped it at the side. She flipped on the light switch, angrily plopped down on the couch and folded her arms.

Leonard sat down beside her. Sousuke sat down directly across from Leonard…on the coffee table.

"Neanderthal!" Kaname yelled and Leonard said quietly at the same time. He looked at her with a presumptuous smile and winked.

_WH—_

She had her haisen fan out, but her arm was suspended in mid air, never making contact with the target. Leonard squeezed her wrist till she yelped.

"I prefer that people I love do not raise their hands to me." Leonard said through his teeth.

Cold steel pressed up against Leonard's cheek. Sousuke cocked the gun, which seemed to echo through the silent apartment.

"And I'd prefer you not lay lips _or hands_ on _my_ Angel" Sousuke said with a steely gaze.

Leonard dropped Kaname's wrist, which she immediately cradled to her chest. He let out and exasperated sigh and stalked to the sliding glass door and looked out.

Sousuke still kept his gun pointed at Leonard's back. One minute passed. Then two. As the third minute rolled around, now it was Kaname's turn to let out an exasperated sigh. She stood up.

"I'm really tired Capt. Peroxide and Sgt. Dumbass, so I'll see you later, I'm going to sleep."

"Wait, I really did come here to talk to you. I just imagined it going differently. For one, I was going to carry you to bed…" Leonard said with a sly smile.

Sousuke stood up, knocking over the coffee table.

"UGH!!" Kaname let out pointing to the vase of flowers that were now on the carpet with water going everywhere. "WHATEVER! Let's have our stupid conversation at the table, and then everyone can get the hell out of here and I can get some REST!"

Kaname grumbled under her breath the whole way into the kitchen as she took her seat at the table. Leonard sat and Sousuke sat down across from him. Sousuke grabbed the side of Kaname's chair, and slid her to his side so they were both sitting across from Leonard. Kaname gave Sousuke an incredulous look, sighed, then turned to Leonard, waiting from him to begin.

"Miss Chidori, you're in danger."

_HAHAHA_ Kaname was laughing so hard tears started streaming down her face.

"Kaname, has the exhaustion finally gotten to you? Are you alright?!" Sousuke grabbed her shoulders to make her face him. Kaname calmed herself, wiped her face on her sleeve, rolled her eyes, and turned to Leonard.

"I'm always in danger! You're some kind of genius to figure that out though; especially since it is your organization that is usually pulling the strings of my 'danger'. Jeez, I'm tired, can you leave now?"

"What if it is not my organization that is the threat?"

"There's a new player?" Sousuke chimed in.

"Yes, well, sort of a splinter cell."

"Ugh, all this back and forth dialog is annoying me, Leonard spill the beans or I'll have to taze you." Kaname said leaning back in her chair.

Leonard smirked and said:

"Amalgam is a superior organization to Mithril. We 'grow' our Whispered to their full potential and create better technology. We also explore science, not just Whispered blacktechnoloy, but the science-superstition that surrounds being Whispered. The things we have learned are quite…_startling_." Leonard laughed to himself. He was truly amused by what his organization had learned.

"Well, what is it?" Kaname demanded.

"We have found that there is a…Counterpart to the Whispered." Leonard glanced curiously at Sousuke. "While the Whispered have incredible knowledge, they do not have all of the physical attributes to make they're inventions reach their full potential. There is a certain amount of strength, speed, and mental concentration required to operate it properly. It was actually a fluke that we found this out at all. When we were testing pilots, we found one that could out perform all the rest and there was a fairly large gap between the abilities. At the next test round with the pilot, the gap was shocking. Just being exposed to the black technology made the pilot that much stronger."

"Uh, that doesn't exactly sound like 'danger' to me. It just sounds like something Mithril should look into, we'd hate to have a bunch of Amalgam super-pilots out there when we've only got the super-sargent over here." Kaname said nodding her head to Sousuke.

"Indeed," Leonard said eyeing Sousuke. "The trouble begins when we started studying, seeking, and gathering these counterparts. We had an entire team of scientists dedicated to this research. Soon, the counterparts were viewed more as property than individuals. We should have done more psychological tests along with all of the physical tests, because all of a sudden we had a fanatical Counterpart claiming that the Whispered were going to destroy the world and it was the _Hushed_ responsibly to silence the Whispers. It wasn't hard for this individual to gain support among the others. They already hated us, the Whispered, because we were the only reason they were viewed as anything but normal athletic people."

Kaname sat in stunned silence with her mouth slightly agape; feeling the guilt of sins she had not committed.

Souske was sitting forward in his chair with his elbows resting on his knees. His brow furrowed as be considered the situation, the ramifications it would have on his charge.

Leonard continued.

"So our '_Hushed_' splinter cell killed every last scientist that was attached to their research, got all of Amalgam's information on known and potential Whispered, and broke out of the facility. Now the _Hushed_ are on a witch hunt to exterminate the Whispered."

"So how it is you are completely unscathed? You are at the top of my list to exterminate." Sousuke asked.

"Not completely unscathed." Leonard said as he undid the top two bottons on his crisp white shirt. He pulled it to the side to reveal a nasty slice across his collarbone and over his shoulder, an obvious knife wound. "I wasn't really all that interested in using the Counterparts, after all, my Arastols do not need pilots. I was an afterthought during their escape. I was testing my Arastol in hand to hand with a Counterpart, they came to 'rescue' her, but she wasn't interested in their crusade. She understands that we are in a way useless without the other, Whispered and Hushed, ying to the other's yang and so on."

"So why come to warn _us_ directly? Aren't you worried about Tessa?" Kaname asked.

"Ha! I warned Little Sister two weeks ago. You are after all at the top of our list. The knowledge we got just from the short testing in Korea was truly astounding. Since you're still here with your one bumbling 'protector' and the useless watcher; I thought I'd make sure my darling Angel was going to be alright."

"I'm not sure I believe any of this. If this improbable story is in fact true, and you did warn Capt. Testarossa, why would she have kept such vital information from us?" Sousuke said.

"Maybe you should rethink who the 'bad guys' are. Life itself is a balance. If there is good, there must be evil. But what if your good, had just a splash of evil it? Then are you fighting the right fight? Are you following orders from a pure hearted directive?" Leonard asked as he stood to leave. "I'll be sending a friend to watch over my dear Angel shortly; anymore questions you have can be answered then, please welcome my friend as you have so kindly welcomed me." With that, Leonard walked to the sliding glass door, went out on the porch and jumped over the railing.

Kaname gasped and ran outside to look over the railing; Sousuke was right on her heels. Leonard was perched on the back of his Arastol, he blew a kiss to Kaname and waved as he disappeared into the night with his mechanical body guard.

_Yeck_, Kaname shivered "I hope his friend isn't one of those walking toasters"

"Don't worry Chidori, I am certain I can defeat whoever is sent."

"But _should we_, you know, defeat them? Why wouldn't Tessa say anything if there was something so terrible on its way for me, or us?" Kaname asked, struggling with the implications.

Sousuke braced both hands on the railing, then threw his head back and yelled

"WRAITH!!"

There was a _thump_ by the front door. Wraith was tied up, gagged, and struggling on the floor by the door. Standing in the doorway was a very average looking brunette. She was in a black skintight jumpsuit. She looked like your average cat burglar without the mask. She was completely unremarkable except for the bright red tips of her hair. Well, that and the fact the she had a gun pointed at them.

"Alright love, I _know_ this looks bad, but I was just trying to protect myself so I could in turn protect you." She said in a melodic British accent.


End file.
